Work from Home in Style: 5 Home Office Renovation Tips

Do you work from home? Do you aspire to have a creative and inspiring working environment right in your home? Does all your home office has is a chair and a table at a corner of your bedroom and you dream to have a fully functional unit someday? If yes, this is what you need to read today.

Working from the comfort of your home is more than a trend these days. Even if you have a small apartment, creating a home-office is not an impossible dream anymore. In fact, there are many ways to squeeze in a productive and stylish workspace or remodel your existing boring workstation with the help of some functional and decorative elements, irrespective of the size of your home.

5 Tips for Home Office Renovation

Here are 5 renovation tips to help you create a sleek home office that tells your personal story.

Choose the Correct Location

You will be spending a lot of your time in your home office. Your first decision, therefore, is to find the perfect location for your workspace. Ideally a spare bedroom, an attic, a room in the basement, a re-purposed dining room, or a backyard shed are the most common choices. However, you must consider a spot that’s tucked away from your family activities, if you want a quiet space for yourself. And if you need to meet clients and/or co-workers at home, it is a good idea to have a private space such as a backyard studio or a room near a side entrance for meetings.

In fact, make sure your home office has a door as it ensures that you can work without interruption as well as give you some privacy, when you need it.

Light It Right

Light is an important consideration when selecting space for your home office. Are there sources of natural light? Do you need extra artificial lights? If yes, what lighting fixtures are already in the room? In fact, lighting your home office correctly is perhaps more important than you think.

According to American Optometric Association, “the average U.S. worker spends seven hours a day on the computer either in the office or working from home.” Besides, brighter is not always better for our eyes. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) suggests that the light must be directed away from the worker’s line of sight to avoid glare on monitor(s), which strain our eyes and causes us to squint.

It is therefore essential to have a proper lighting plan for your workplace. The idea is to combine natural light from the windows with supplemental light. You can consult a home office renovation expert or handyman to get things right, especially if you need to create new sources for natural light.

Here are a few ideas to help you avoid glare:

Instead of depending on your computer screen’s light, use an additional desk lamp for your paperwork. It will also cut down on eye strain.

If you have lighting overhead, make sure it runs parallel to your line of vision to your computer screen.

To avoid glare place your desk/workstation in such a way that it run alongside your window(s).

Take Care of Storage

No matter how much we talk about becoming paperless, that’s yet to become a reality for many. If you too need to keep paper documents on hand, make sure you consider your storage requirements. And even if you have all your documents stored in the cloud and on computer hard drives, you will still need space to store supplies and equipment like printer(s), phone, batteries, coffee filters, and so on. And what about professional awards, family photos, and your books? You need to display them too. Hence, it is essential to consider your storage too, be it open shelves, boxes, baskets, or organizers.

Opt for built-in storage or cabinetry to save space as most home offices don’t come with a lot of area. And this is one place where you can get totally creative. For example, if the room that houses your home office has a staircase, use the space underneath it to build a wall-mounted desk that include shelving and storage configured to it.

Alternatively, you can add a few shelves and drawers on the wall to utilize an unused space to organize your paperwork or keep a vintage wooden box or two on an unused corner of your room to store your magazines. Another tip is to use under cabinet lighting, desktop paper trays, and file storage to stay organized.

Consider Your Desk

Just like your storage, your desk is also a very important consideration. If you are looking for something very basic, opt for a simple desk with four legs and add a few shelves and cabinets to create a functional workspace. But if you want something more, there are many choices available, when it comes to desks.

You can either have a floating desk, or something against a wall or be built in. The height of a standard desk is 29 to 30 inches and you can have them in different sizes. However, if space is not a concern, our advice is to go for the largest desk that fits in your space comfortably. If you want more work surface, built-in desks are better options since you customize the design. For instance, if you want to transform your attic into your workstation, a built in corner desk will give enough space to play with.

Finally, you have the option to place desks against the wall, which is perhaps the most common for home offices. If you have enough space in the room, place two desks on opposite walls, one to place your computer and other equipment and another to do paperwork to create a good work area. However, make sure you have enough room to walk around without being disturbed by the other desk and chair.

Think Aesthetically

Go for some pretty accessories. You will be spending a lot of your time here. Make sure it suits your taste. From colorful pencil holders to pretty notepads and fancy coffee mugs or crystals, adding anything that aligns with your mood and style can be a perfect fit in your workstation. In fact, technology can also be stylish these days. Or go minimalist with monochrome color schemes.

If you are up for it, hang a pretty picture or some inspirational quote above the desk to give you positive vibes. Additionally, add some plants not only to add an organic character to your home office but also to lower workplace stress as well as enhance productivity.

Conclusion

When you are renovating your home office, the idea is to create a space where you can be comfortable as well as productive and efficient. These tips mentioned in this post take both these points into consideration to make your investment worthwhile. And if you have some more tips, don’t forget to share them with us in the comments.

Author Bio: David has amassed more than 20 years of experience in the service repair and renovation business. Through MrWright, he has helped both commercial and residential clients to build their offices and dream homes within their budget. His innovative and can-do attitude earned him many repeat customers. Through his articles, he hopes to share information nuggets to help businesses and consumers save time and money.